


With You, With You

by gillywulf



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Rugby, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-02 07:12:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4050979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gillywulf/pseuds/gillywulf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korra never expected to play rugby. But then, she never expected to meet Asami.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Like always, because I'm trash. This will update every Sunday. If I forget, message me.

“Make sure you eat well”

“Uh-huh”

“Don't get in trouble”

“I won't”

“Try and make friends”

“Okay”

“Do your school work”

“I will”

“And-”

“Mom” Korra stared at her mother, silently begging for her to stop.

“I'm sorry, it's just not everyday that your baby goes to college for the first time” Senna's eyes were tearing up, alerting her to the impending hug that would follow and crush all her bones. As predicted, strong arms enveloped her, crushing their bodies together as her mom gently stroked her hair. “I'm just so _proud_ of you!”

“I know, mom” She pat her mother's back until she heard her father chuckle from where he sat draped over Korra's creaky desk chair. 

“Senna, it's Korra. She's going to be fine. Now let's go so she can actually make friends” With a wink towards his daughter, Tonraq steered his weepy wife from the dorm. Her blubbering echoed down the busy hall and Korra couldn't help but laugh. 

Here she was. In her dorm room. In her first day of college. Wow. The room was small compared to her room at home, but she also had to share this one. Her side was relatively sparse, with only one large poster of her favorite actress and a family photo. Her desk held only a lamp and her neatly organized (for now) school supplies. She knew the thing would be a mess by the end of the year, but she wouldn't let that mar her first day jitters. 

She sighed. As the first person in her family to go to college, the pressure was officially on, but she had faith in her abilities. Korra had been a truly dedicated student, prodigious in some areas, and truly enjoyed learning. College couldn't be that different, right? With that final thought, she decided to explore the grounds. 

The campus was spread wide over green grounds. She'd fallen in love with the constant beautiful views during her initial tour and the scenery stood up to the first day test. Each building looked like new construction and all of the lawns were immaculately trimmed. Even the brick walkways looked perfect. A few other schools she had visited were victims of cracked or missing bricks, so it was an incredible achievement to have avoided that.

Eventually, Korra found her way to the student union building. Families and their students swarmed along with returning alumni and move in helpers. One of them smiled widely at her.

“Hi! Are you new here?” Feeling blindsided, Korra nodded. “Great! Welcome! The student help center is right there, there's the bookstore for all your school clothing needs and there's a Starbucks just in the other room along with a whole bunch of computers and printers if you ever need them. Upstairs right now is the Club Expo if you were interested in joining any clubs or sports teams. I highly recommend checking it out”

Korra blinked at the helper. Getting a speech thrown at her was the last thing she'd expected. She nodded numbly and followed the directions up the stairs. It wasn't as if she had anything else to do, she might as well look. And if she found something, even better.

It was easy to get lost and swept up in the expo. Especially when more than 100 tables were dispersed around the room with more than 200 people running them, and each trying to earn the attention of disinterested passerbys. Korra strolled down the isles only vaguely looking at anything. If she was going to join a club, she'd do it on her own terms and she didn't want to give anyone her email who would send her an obnoxious amount of messages pertaining to something she didn't care about.

“Excuse me, do you enjoy-?” Korra shouldered past him. Obviously, some people didn't get that. It was probably rude, but she was tired, irritable, and past the point of caring. Maybe she could just join some fitness group. She'd heard good things about Crossfit, after all.

Korra collided with someone again, sending them both crashing to the floor with the stranger landing hard on top of her. There was most definitely an elbow in her kidney. Korra was ready to throw down before she opened her eyes.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry! I totally wasn't looking where I was going. Are you okay?” The fight left her in a rush. The girl above her was stunning. Her long dark hair cascaded over her shoulders like an inky waterfall that Korra's fingers would look so good in and her skin looked so soft and flawless. Brilliant green eyes gazed down at her in worry and amazement.

“Um, yeah. I’m okay” The girl grinned (oh boy) before hopping to her feet and holding out a hand for Korra to take. She gripped it and after marveling the feel for a moment, pulled herself up. Hands brushed at Korra's shoulders and sleeves.

“I guess I'll see you around” she said softly. A shy wave later and she slipped through the crowd, Korra staring after her.

“I'm joining your club” Korra vowed as she pushed through the crowd after her.


	2. Chapter 2

Somehow, in the throngs of people, Korra lost the girl with sharp green eyes. Where did she go? Where _could_ she have gone? Back to her table, obviously, but which was hers? Korra wound up retracing her footsteps for almost another hour before she gave up. Maybe she only meant to be daydream material. She stopped briefly at the Crossfit table and scribbled down her new school email, still unfamiliar to her hand. Disappointment heavy in her chest, she turned to leave.

“Hey you! Come here! Yeah, you!” Korra paused in the doorway of the auditorium and whirled around. Three girls, all older than her, were staring at her and gesturing rather forcefully for her to come over to their table. They were all rather terrifying looking and Korra didn't feel like dying, so she obeyed. When she got closer, she saw a tri-fold poster and a large banner hanging off the edge of the table both declaring the club to be for Womens' Rugby.

“What's your name, kid?” the most intimidating of the three asked. Her short dark hair and light green eyes gave her an austere expression.

“I'm Korra”

“Freshman?” Korra nodded. “Have you ever thought about rugby, freshman Korra? Because I think you should. We lost our 8 man to graduation and you look like you'd be a great fit. I’m Chief by the way- er, sorry, Lin” The scary girl held her hand out for a handshake and Korra took it. “This is Kya,” The girl on her left had long brown hair and eyes that made Korra wonder if she was from the South too, “and this is Pema” On her right was a kind looking girl with her hair up in a bun. Korra was kind of baffled to see her with people who looked like they could tear her spine out with no problem.

“Nice to meet you. I have to admit, I don't actually know anything about rugby” she managed to speak up.

“Don't worry about it. None of us did when we first started playing. We'll teach you for most of this semester but you will have the opportunity to play if we think you're ready. It's really fun, I promise” Pema replied with a wave of her hand.

“Yeah, just come to the interest meeting. We'll talk more in depth about everything- Asami! Where've you been?” Kya's attention was caught by someone behind Korra, prompting them all to turn around to see them. The moment she did, Korra's eyes widened. The girl she had been trying to find all day jogged towards them. She looked as mind-blowingly perfect as she had before. Not a single smudge of her make up and not a hair out of place. She was suddenly more intimidating than her teammates.

“I've been handing out the fliers like Emp asked” She pulled a short stack of small papers from behind the table and straightened when she saw Korra. “Hey! I bumped into you earlier, didn't I?”

“Yeah” Korra answered weakly.

“And now you're at my table. Must be fate right? Here, take one. See you tomorrow night, right?” She winked after handing Korra a flier and walked off. Korra stared blankly at her until she couldn't anymore.

“Oh this is cute. We should just let Asami loose on campus and see who follows her back” Lin's voice broke through her reverie. All three of the upperclassmen were grinning at her like she'd just spilled the president's juicy secret. Kya slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

“It's totally okay that you've got a Big Gay Crush,” Korra didn't like how capitalized that sounded, “half our team is gayer than Elton John. Besides the GSA, we're probably the most accepting of that here”

“Yeah. Kya's the gayest person I've ever seen” Lin quipped. Instead of getting defensive like people at home would have, Kya just smirked at her.

“Like _you're_ one to talk” Lin blushed and crossed her arms with a huff.

“Anyway, you should totally come tomorrow and meet the rest of the team” Pema carefully pried Kya's arm from around Korra and smiled politely. Asami's face flashed through her mind and Korra knew she was doomed.

“Yeah, I'll be there” Because Asami was probably going to be there and she _had_ to see her again. Kya and Pema grinned widely.

 

~~~

 

When Korra got back to her dorm room, her roommate was out, likely still eating at one of the dining halls. She didn't mind, though, as it gave her the opportunity to fall flat on her face into her bed. She'd done almost nothing, but she felt drained. Something had happened today and whatever it was, was life altering.

Because she'd met _Asami_.

Korra liked the way it slipped off her tongue like a song. She liked the way Asami spoke and carried herself, as if she were totally confident in who she was and how she looked and-

Korra buried her face in her pillow to hide the blush that had spread across her cheeks. It was embarrassing to be _this_ into someone she'd had two conversations with, if they could be considered conversations. All she wanted was to go find the girl and _know_ her. Pathetic. She wanted to know what foods she liked, what sorts of things she found funny, the music she listened to, she just wanted to be _near_ her.

And now she'd agreed to think about joining a sport simply because Asami played. Whipped.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I missed last week guys. I had nothing in the tank.

Korra had never been to the building whose name was written on the flier. Granted, she hadn't been in many buildings yet, so it wasn't very hard to not have been in this one. Her lack of direction caused her to be several minutes late to the start of the interest meeting, but when she burst into the room (trying not to seem out of breath), she was infinitely grateful that the only thing she seemed to have missed was a dance party in the middle of the room.

At least fifteen girls danced as ridiculously and exaggeratedly as they physically could. Korra didn't know if it was a weird initiation thing until she glanced around the room and saw other girls who looked awkward and uncomfortable around the room's fringe. Clearly they didn't know what was happening either.

Her eyes immediately sought out Asami who she found on the far side of the room, doubled over in laughter. Her cheeks were appealingly pink and her green eyes shone bright in their mirth. Korra swallowed. She'd talked to her twice and she was a mess.

“Hey! Korra, right?” She whirled to her right to find one of the girls she'd first talked to at the table.

“Yeah. Kya?” she replied with uncertainty. The girl grinned and gestured to the seat next to her.

“Absolutely right. We're running a bit late today, sorry about that. We tend to get distracted very easily. Chief was about to start talking then Moony brought up this song which has been stuck in her head for like a week, and now we're here. Doing not-rugby things. You can _imagine_ the nightmares that are parties” Kya rolled her eyes at some unknown memory, but the implication was clear. Korra likened it to trying to train Naga when she was only five. Ridiculous and all over the place.

“Yeah, that's probably something else” she laughed.

“You'll see tonight. Chief'll talk about it” Kya nodded in the direction of the terrifying girl at the front of the room. She scowled at the dance party with her arms crossed tightly over her chest as Pema manned the computer next to her, grinning and bobbing her head to the beat of the music. Kya waved her arm in the air and caught Pema's attention who immediately grimaced and turned off the music. Groans and objections followed, but the small crowd sat down on open chairs and the floor.

“Hello everyone. I’m Lin, or Chief. This is Pema, or Wit. By the way, yes, everyone gets a rugby name after their rookie season, so if you're going to be joining us today, you are rookies” She launched into an abbreviated explanation of the game and its positions complete with a detailed slideshow with pictures and brief clips. Korra's head practically spun with all this new information, but she was comforted by the fact that almost none of the other possible rookies looked like the understood.

“Don't worry,” Kya poked her in the ribs with a teasing smile, “we'll explain it more at practices and it will always make more sense when you see it in action. Don't get scared yet” Korra snorted.

“As if I'd be scared” She waved off the notion with a flap of her hand as if her heart wasn't beating painfully in her chest at the thought of playing. Violent _and_ tactical. This could be her game. Kya's arched eyebrow was her only reply.

“Now don't panic if none of this makes sense. You'll eventually be sorted into what positions you want and the ones we think would be good for you where you'll learn it from other people who _know_ the position” Pema cut in before Lin could plow on. Her polite voice carried through the room better than Korra thought it would and (thanks to the help of the pictures from the slideshow) she tried picturing her on the field, all bloody fury, and tearing people up. It was a frightening contrast. Kya shot up form her seat, throwing her from the day dream.

“Also, tonight we'll be having a party at my house on South street. That's the address,” she pointed to the slideshow which now projected only a few lines of words on a Microsoft document. “Take your phones out and take a picture, whatever. If you are genuinely interested in the team, please come. We do a lot of fun stuff” Korra typed it down into her phone's notes before locking it and stowing it away in her pocket.

“Okay, that's all we've got for you guys right now, we'll see you at eight!” Pema gave the room a wave and people popped up from their chairs, rushing to talk to people. Korra was barely up from her seat when Kya's hand landed on her shoulder.

“I'm gonna see you later, right?” she angled with a smirk. Korra nodded.

“Definitely. I don't have any friends yet, so why not spend my first night with possibly violent strangers?” Kya's smirk grew to a grin.

“That's the spirit” She gave her a pat to the shoulder before wandering off in Lin's direction. Korra took that as her cue to leave, but her way stopped by a shout.

“Hey! You!” A shout from Asami. The girl smiled at her.

“Uh, hi”

“Korra, right?” She nodded weakly. “I'll see you tonight, yeah? It's going to be a lot of fun. I promise” For once, the fog cleared from Korra's head and she managed not to stammer the next time she spoke.

“So now I know who to blame if it isn't” she tried to tease. It came out a little more serious than she intended, but the point got across anyway if Asami's laugh was anything to go by.

“Absolutely. Bring any and all complaints to me if you are dissatisfied with your evening. See you”

“Yeah” Korra was barely able to bring up her hand for a wave before Asami was out of her sight, lost in the crowd of ruggers. She sighed. Three conversations now. Still whipped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I give someone's rugby name and don't tell you who it belongs to, make some guesses. I want to know who you think it is!


	4. Chapter 4

Korra changed her outfit three times before leaving for the party. She'd been in the midst of taking off the first when her still nameless roommate came back. The girl watched her for a moment before flopping onto her bed and flipping open her laptop.

“Whatever hot date you've got tonight isn't going to care about the difference between shirt one or two. How the hell did you get a hot date this quickly anyway?” she asked, not looking up from her screen. Korra was glad, as it meant she couldn't see the flush that had taken over her face.

“It's not a date. It's a party”

“Where someone hot will be, obviously” Korra tried not to think of Asami, but it was useless. She straightened out the third shirt and sighed. It would be good enough. Asami wasn't the _only_ person at this party that she wanted to make a good impression on. The whole team would be there and she didn't want to seem like an idiot.

“Shut up” she mumbled. Her roommate sniggered but said nothing else. Korra left for the bus stop only once she was sure she had her room key, ID, and her wallet. The bus was just pulling up to the stop when she arrived, so she slipped on with no difficulty and grabbed a seat by the front. She soon remembered, that like every building _on_ campus, she had no idea where anything was _off_ campus. She quickly plugged the address into her phone and scrambled to her feet when she realized she should get off at the very next stop.

It was barely a block before she knew she came to the right house. She could hear music from the sidewalk, the sound permeating the walls into the late summer air outside. With a steadying breath, Korra walked up the front steps and pushed open the front door. A loud cheer and a beer in her hand greeted her. Kya – appearing from no where – threw and arm around her shoulders and pulled her into the party.

“Korra! How great of you to come! Now, there's a lot of people here right now, a bunch weren't at the meeting. You know, internships to set up and classes to sign up for, yada, yada, but you don't need to know all of them right now. Try and meet who you can, were all pretty chill. Except for Empress. She's not so chill” She gestured with her beer to a girl in the far corner of the room with a severe face and a beauty mark under her eye.

“Got it” Korra nodded. Kya just smiled, evidence that she'd already had a fair amount to drink.

“Enjoy yourself” She released Korra's shoulders and was soon lost in the throng of people and music. Korra let herself observe. In what looked like the kitchen, a group of girls crowded around a table, chugging their drinks then flipping the cups over. Someone was doing a keg stand in the other corner. Korra had to wonder if this sort of thing was normal for them, but decided not to think about it.

In the main room, people danced haphazardly to the pounding music while others hovered around the edges, talking to one another or, in some cases, making out. One of which was Pema and a bald guy. A hand on her arm snapped her away from her awkward staring and into the captivating eyes she had hoped to see.

“Hey Korra! I’m so glad you're here!” Asami's smile was wide and relaxed. Korra could tell she wasn't drunk yet, but she was a little buzzed.

“I'm glad to be here. Honestly though, I still have almost no idea what I’m getting into” Korra didn't mention that she meant following Asami around and not rugby, which, in the the end, was still true enough. But the girl didn't notice and threw her head back in a laugh.

“No one does when they start. You'll figure it out. Come, dance with me” she suggested, taking Korra's hand and leading her towards the group of people. There was only a brief second of hesitation where she couldn't believe what was happening before she threw herself into it. Asami pulled Korra's body against hers as they were surrounded on all sides. They were almost chest and chest and Korra had trouble focusing on the music that was playing.

Asami looked at her with heavy-lidded eyes, her lips slightly parted. She looked at Korra like Korra might look at Asami. She liked it. A lot. Carefully, she rested a hand on the older girl's waist as they danced but didn't dare for anything else, not even when Asami looped her arms around her neck. Not even when she could feel Asami's breath on her lips.

Song after song, they moved together. Nothing existed outside one another and Korra was so very grateful that she'd gone to the info meeting. The sipped on their warm cups of beer so slowly that Korra knew she'd end the night sober, even Asami looked the same. But she didn't seem inclined to leave Korra, not with the way she was looking at her. She opened her mouth to speak when the music cut off abruptly and a loud groan chorused through the dancers. But Lin standing on a coffee table with a beer pressed to her forehead stopped them in their tracks.

“Me, me, me, me, me, me, me!” The whole party echoed her and fell silent. With a wide grin (awkward on her face), she sang. “If I were the marrying kind, and thank the Lord I’m not sir, the kind of rugger I would be would be a rugby! Fullback, sir!” All around her, people sang with her and answered as they were supposed to. Asami faced her and tried to enunciate the words so she might follow along.

“Why's that, sir?” the party chanted.

“Because I get fucked” Lin sang as the rest of the team joined in. “And you get fucked, we’d all get fucked together. It’ll be alright in the middle of the night if we all get fucked together!” They went through position after position and crude assessment after crude assessment. There was an odd sense of togetherness where everyone seemed to empathize in that somber nodding way.

With the singing, the alcohol, and Asami beside her, it all felt nice. Something she could get used to.


	5. Chapter 5

On Monday, Korra woke up early. She wanted to be completely alert and ready to go for her first ever college class and nothing was going to get in her way. Her workout clothes were already laid out on her tiny dresser so she tugged them on and headed over to the gym. Surprisingly enough, she wasn't the only early riser. The gym was already crawling with people bound for the weight room. It was enough to spur her to the indoor track instead.

She lay her bag on the top shelf of the cubbies and set to stretching her legs. Preparation was the key to any workout. She had just gotten to rolling out her ankles when another person pushed open the track door. Naturally, it was Asami, looking just as flawless as she always seemed to even though it was seven in the morning and she had evidently already been in the weight room. Her green eyes locked on Korra and a smile spread over her lips.

“Hey” she greeted, setting her bag next to the first and positioning herself to mirror Korra's stretches.

“Hi. Come here often?” Korra switched to her other leg.

“Every morning, bright and early. I do a lot of unscheduled extracurricular stuff, so I don't make it to practice every night. Got to get the burn in somehow, right?” They both stood to full height (it didn't escape Korra's notice that Asami was taller) and began their warm-up laps around the track, side by side.

“You won't be at every practice? They don't mind that?” Clearly the fact that Asami was a busy person was the most important piece of that information. Asami shook her head and they picked up the pace a bit.

“No, not really. They tend to be pretty relaxed about missed practices as long as you make them up in your own time like this, so it works out. I mean, Empress gets annoyed by it, but she's not a captain so it doesn't really matter what she thinks” She paused and glanced at Korra. “Also, don't take this the wrong way, because rugby is super fun and the girls are great and it's honestly the best decision I've made since coming to college, but your rookie season is hard” Her voice lost its playfulness and Korra could tell she meant what she was saying. 

“'Hard' how? Learning wise?” she asked as they finished a lap. Asami shrugged. 

“That's part of it, but that's the easiest part. You come to practice and pay attention and you'll get it in no time. No, the hard part about being a rookie is your rookie class. You'll have to do team building stuff with them and it doesn't always go smoothly. Some of the vets- er, the girls who aren't rookies, some of them use that as an excuse to look down on you. We're actually one of the better ones about that- I've seen some really shitty things vets on other teams do, but we're not so bad. That doesn't really alleviate the teasing though” The pounding of their feet filled the quiet air. It wasn't the warning Korra had expected, but she took it. Any information was valuable at this point. 

“Okay. I can deal with that. I just hope they're ready for me” That earned a laugh from the other girl. 

“You look like you could bowl half of them over anyway”

“I probably could” Relief flooded through her as she saw the tension ease from the other girl's shoulders. It wasn't much, but it was something. She was  _ Korra _ . She could handle anything. 

“I'm only telling you this because I think you'd be a really great addition to the team. You're really cool and super fit which is pretty much all we ask for” Asami gestured vaguely to Korra's body. The blue eyed girl raised an eyebrow. 

“You callin' me hot?” She leveled Asami with a suggestive grin. She was immediately rewarded with a flustered blush across the rugger's cheeks and she  _ knew _ it wasn't the exercise. 

“I mean, you  _ are _ , but I wasn't commenting on it. I thought it was one of those things where everyone sort of just knew it and moved on-” Her jaw snapped shut with a click when she realized she was just digging herself deeper and Korra had to smile. Their roles had somehow managed to reverse themselves and she could not have been happier. 

“You okay there? Do you need a water break?” she laughed. 

“Oh shut up” Asami smacked her arm but kept her eyes forward and away from Korra.

“Yeah, yeah, okay. So give me some rugby basics because I literally have no idea what I’m getting into here” From there, Asami spouted rules, explanations, and strategies that Korra didn't even try to follow. It didn't really matter what Asami was saying, she'd learn it all later. For now, she just enjoyed the sound of her voice and her company. 

For an hour, they ran together at a steady pace, Asami talking the hole time. Korra would interject every now and again, breaking through her contented haze so that it didn't seemed like she'd gone to another planet. It was nice. As they drew close to finishing their cool-down lap, Korra's stomach gurgled loudly. Asami smiled at her. 

“Hungry?”

“ _ Starving _ . Do you maybe want to eat breakfast together?” It was a bit of a leap, but she hung onto their interactions at the party and the run. They weren't strangers, it wouldn't be weird. 

“Yeah, that'd be great” Asami's eyes were bright and happy. Korra relished the feeling of knowing it was her who'd done that. 


	6. Chapter 6

Korra found the team's meeting spot outside of the gym with ease. A large group of girls she recognized from the party were all hanging around one spot, joking and laughing and pulling on sneakers. She thought she saw Asami's (lustrous) head of hair in there somewhere, but she decided to join the smaller group of girls that stood awkwardly to the side.

There were two girls occasionally casting nervous glances at the rest of the group. Korra took this to mean they were the other new rookies. Best to introduce herself, then.

“Hey” she greeted when she was closer. The two paused and returned her awkward smile. The taller of the two, a girl with short black hair and vibrant green eyes raised her hand in a stilted wave.

“Hi. I’m Opal. Are you new too?” She sounded nice, if nothing else.

“Yeah. I’m Korra” She dropped her bag and followed suit in pulling off her shoes. “Do you guys know what we're doing today?”

“Just learning the basics, I think. I’m Jinora by the way. Nice to meet you” Her warm brown eyes making Korra _want_ to trust her. Was that a super power? A stylized blue arrow tattoo crept up the back of her right hand. Already she was a person Korra wanted to know more about.

“Alright everyone, including you, Bob Squad” Kya's sudden voice boomed over the large crowd and it took Korra a solid ten seconds to realize that she and the other two rookies were the Bob Squad. She blinked and found that they all indeed did have short hair. Someone in the large group began laughing uproariously but Kya only smiled and waited for them to finish. “So we're all going to go to the dance studio slash dojo in the Auxiliary gym and it's going to be a pretty easy day. Everyone follow the Grump”

“Don't call me that” Lin grumbled. With a scowl, she turned and started walking. It was obvious that she expected everyone to simply start moving and they did. It was barely a two minute walk to the small mirror lined room where everyone dumped their bags in the outside hallway and filed in. The three rookies stayed together. Pema piped up the moment it seemed like everyone was in the room.

“Circle up! Let's stretch it out” The team didn't move at first, choosing instead to talk to their friends and socialize, but eventually a few flopped onto the ground. Korra, Opal, and Jinora all sat beside one another. The circle was predictably lopsided.

“As we stretch, we're going to go around the circle and everyone will say their name, their rugby name – If they have one – and what they did this summer” Kya pushed her left leg out in front of her and leaned over it. “So I'll start. I’m Kya. My rugby name is Ice and I may or may not have gotten arrested last week” A few incredulous shouts arose but Kya just smiled and turned to the girl sitting next to her. Her brown hair was intricately braided and her blue eyes were nearly the same shade as Korra's. She looked like she'd have a hard time tackling anybody though, with how thin she was.

“I'm Katara or Sapphire and I went skiing” Next was Yue, or Moony, then was June, aka Boho and so on until it came to Asami. If Korra said she hadn't been waiting eagerly, it would have been a lie. Asami was looking just as flawless as she had been during their morning run and the breakfast that followed. The idea that she might get to have that _every_ morning sent a shiver up her spine.

“Hello. I’m Asami and I don't have a name yet. But this summer, I rebuilt my car's engine from scratch”

“Holy shit” a shorter girl they hadn't yet gotten to with hair hanging completely over her eyes said loudly. Asami laughed.

“It's a hobby” _Oh shit, she's good with her hands_. Naturally, the only thing Korra could think about was her crush. This was getting too out of hand too fast. She almost missed the next few people entirely until it was suddenly her turn.

“Oh hey. I’m Korra. I don't have a name and I spent most of my summer trying to train my pet polar bear, so I didn't really do anything exciting” she said with a shrug. The room went silent. Opal touched her arm.

“Wait, your pet _polar bear_?” Oh. That probably needed some clearing up if everyone's faces were anything to go by.

“Yeah! Naga's mom was killed when she was just a cub and I found her when I was five. I somehow managed to hide her from my parents for like, a month, but by then it was too late for them to get rid of her. She followed my everywhere. Still does if she can fit through the doorway. But obviously it's an ongoing process” Mostly Naga was well trained and obedient, but her dad's whole 'let's see if she'll let you ride her' idea had really put that to the test, especially when it turned out she would.

“That's fucking badass” June (or Boho?) commented with a slow nod.

“Thanks. Just doing my part” No one else had anything interesting to say really, but Korra tried to pay attention for names, as there were a lot. She tried to put little details to names or rugby names, but it just wasn't possible. Once they'd run through all of the names and finished their stretching, everyone was directed to sit against one wall as the Tiumverate – as Korra had called Pema, Lin, and Kya in her mind (she thought it sounded cool anyway) – stood up and began lecturing on basic rules. Again, there were so many that Korra could only digest a few, but she tried to nail down the most important.

 

  1. Don't pass the ball forward.

  2. Don't tackle above the waist.

  3. Stay onside.

  4. Listen to your teammates.




 

There were other things about how to tackle or when to do what. They pointed out what a ruck was (two players fighting over an open ball) or a scrum (half the team fighting over an open ball) and mentioned things only to dismiss them a second later with a 'you'll learn about that later'. Frankly, Korra doubted that she'd learn about it later.

They moved into two lines where they practiced passing balls back and forth to each other. Korra thought this might be a refresher practice for the returning players as well, as things could easily be forgotten over the summer.

There was a moment when Jinora passed her the ball and she caught it with the same ease that she threw it, that Korra thought she might really enjoy this whole rugby thing.


End file.
